GCD Reflection 2.26.09

I think Maxine Waller gives a solid answer to the question of “Why is Ivanhoe poor” in her Thanksgiving 1987 speech: “The Constitution of the United States of America is not for the people of Ivanhoe.”(p.71). Law making and policy making rarely has been made in the best interest of the poor. Reflecting back to Johnson’s Privilege, Power, and Difference, it is important to recall that: “Privilege is always a problem for people who don’t have it and for people who do, because privilege is always in relation to others… Everything that’s done to receive or maintain it – however passive and unconscious – results in suffering or deprivation for someone.” (p.8). Laws and policies are designed and upheld by those who have established privilege and prioritize the maintenance of their privilege.
Comparable to many other places where poverty is a contemporary issue, Ivanhoe is located on land that was once rich in resources. Natural resources are valuable, especially to those in power. The dominant power has historically been capable of deciding who those resources would be used for and for what purpose. This is how things played out in Ivanhoe. “Outsiders (capitalists) with money or vision or maybe both, saw a chance to get rich quick and took advantage of the situation.” (p.19). The powers that be were able to build furnaces and mines to remove and use the resources in the land that Ivanhoe was built upon.
People came to Ivanhoe to work for the powers-that-be to do the labor necessary to extract the resources for popular use. Immediately, this set up a power relationship that awarded privilege to the companies and dependency to the residents. This power relationship determined the fate of the people to become oppressed and impoverished. “When a town or region is dependent on one industry, the people and the community become powerless and dependent, isolated from important decision making.” (p. 30). The community was dependent on the jobs provided by the mines and plants, and when they shut down, they created a poor town.
Ivanhoe remains poor because of their oppression by the three faces of power, as we learned according to Ganz. If the first face of power for Ivanhoe is first, the companies who were able to decide how to allocate the resources and also able to decide that there were better(cheaper) places to get the same job done. Once the Ivanhoe Civic League was established and they attempted to take some power back, they were faced by a new representation of the first face of power, agencies and organizations, the county officials, other members of local and state government.
When the Ivanhoe Civic League was confronting the first face of power and were met by nice sounding words and praises, the second face of power was at work ensuring that the issues of the people of Ivanhoe stayed off the table. “Despite all the accolades and words of encouragement from politicians and government officials, there was little material help or resources readily available to the community of Ivanhoe.” (p.67). The Ivanhoe Civic League discovered that there were many bureaucratic limitations to help and guidelines that they had been unaware of preventing their issues from being resolved.
The third face of power is at work in the establishment of the power relationship between the haves and the have-nots of Ivanhoe history. The company was able to get away with destroying most of the vitality of the community because the community suffered from internalized oppression and a feeling of helplessness and dependency caused by the loss of their jobs and the loss of their pride. This is why it took so much and so long before Ivanhoe was able to finally protest the damage being inflicted upon them. Because they had been so damaged already, this was held against them, as agencies and organizations were reluctant to assist Ivanhoe because they had no capital.

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I think one of the most important strategic actions taken by the Ivanhoe community is to educate themselves. This is important because it has allowed the Ivanhoe Civic League to see the bigger picture of oppression and privilege in the world. Maxine Waller describes what she was able to see once her eyes had been opened: “We didn’t get in this situation overnight… The depression is a world problem and there are people all over the country, and all over the world, bringing about these little changes just like we are.” (p.81). Before she became educated about the connections between poverty and government, she was a less effective leader because her goals were addressing the immediate problem (lack of jobs due to lack of a factory) rather than the root of the problem (community dependency on industry).
Because the immediate needs could not be met, the community benefited greatly from understanding why their demands would not be met and what they could do instead. “There was less of a sense of helplessness and more of a growing sense of power about the future and possibility of controlling it.” (p.86). Without educating the community to empower themselves, they would not be able to preserve the community.
Before the Ivanhoe Civic League embarked on the Community Education Program, they recorded their victories as well as their failures. An important tactical action used by the Ivanhoe Civic League was the event, Hands Across Ivanhoe. Especially early on in the development of an organization, having such a symbolic and empowering event was particularly useful. The first thing the group needed to do was come together to show that the group was willing and committed to working together to solve the community’s problems.
Maxine put it well when she said: “We didn’t just need something to raise funds. We needed something to join people together, to bring people together, and let them stand up for something they believe in.” (p.53). As the Ivanhoe Civic League was in it’s early stages here, it really did need to show the community something physical and tangible to express the sentiment of working together. The result of this was strengthening the bonds of the community and providing them with hope and excitement for the future of the Ivanhoe Civic League and the town itself.
This is part of what turned into what I consider one of the important and defining strategies of the Ivanhoe Civic League. The use of theatre to develop community, strengthen relationships, and to express the voice of the people seems to have been especially effective with Ivanhoe. “Theatre, which builds on the storytelling of oral tradition, is another way in which the community members are able to tell their story and reflect on and learn from their experiences.” (p.111). Using theatre and poetry and other creative techniques not only honors the heritage of the community, but empowers the people through the encouragement to use their voices and to tell their story.
The theatre project was useful to the Ivanhoe Civic League in the lessons learned about the relationships between the members of the community and the outside forces that choose to work on behalf of the people of Ivanhoe. This conflict, although it only affected a few, was a beneficial experience in that it taught both Maxine and the outsider director that it is important to understand how much is too much. By this I mean that it is incredibly essential for the success and health of those involved in community development to recognize when they are spreading themselves too thin. When a select few take on more responsibilities than they can reasonably handle and remain healthy, then the goal of the event